Winging It
by My Name Is NOT Jessica
Summary: Snow and Livvie were the Institute escapees. Now they're forming a Flock of their own. But can they really trust an ex-Eraser, a boy with his mouth sewn shut, a girl with a dagger, a Generation Omega gone insane, and a girl bent on revenge? T for language
1. Through the Fire and the Flames

**So hi. This used to be a submit-a-character story, but that's all over and done with now, so I deleted all that stuff. Here's the characters and the people who submitted them!**

**Ross - Moe10**

**Olivia (Livvie) - Great Hawk**

**Energy - ImmortalWings2.5**

**Rhaksha Ora - Cadisha Ora Rhaksha Caden**

**Zelda - JPfreak100 (a.k.a. KaylaAnonymous)**

**Brisk - Me, aided by the popular Artificial Intelligence Cleverbot**

**Snow - Me again!**

**Shh, the disclaimer's starting! *Munches popcorn loudly*: Maximum Ride belongs to James Patterson, and the characters belong to the authors who submitted them. Except Snow and Brisk, they're mine.**

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Snow POV.

If there's one thing I've learned about life, it's that everything can - and will - change in the blink of an eye. Everything's a balancing act and if something slips, it's all over. You think you've won - and then it's all gone.

Take right now for instance.

Two minutes ago, me and Olivia were on top of the world. But now we were running for our lives, being chased by the hounds of hell, and the place we called home was about to go up in flames. Why? Because something slipped. And now if we weren't fast enough our future was gonna look a whole lot like our past.

So, honestly, I didn't have time to think about what I've learned. All I had time for was my feet slamming the ground, my heart pounding like a hummingbird's wings, and the shadowy, running figure that was Livvie in front of me. And - oh, yeah - the bloodthirsty wolf-men hot on our heels. Fully-morphed Erasers with lethal claws and jagged, razor-sharp teeth, ideal for ripping apart the flesh of lesser mutants.

Like us.

Then the fuse we'd set before fleeing must have lit - my major clues were the big BOOM and even bigger fireball heading towards us at impossible speeds. Luckily, most of the Erasers were consumed in the fire and the rest were scorched pretty bad. Not-so-luckily, the force of the blast lifted us up, propelled us forward, and slammed us back down like ragdolls. I landed hard on my left arm, felt something snap and a shooting pain. Swearing, I looked up and saw Livvie spit out blood by the light of the burning trees surrounding us. "You okay?" she called.

"Y-yeah" I said shakily, climbing to my feet. Turning, we saw the roof of our blazing house collapse in a blizzard of sparks. The inferno surged and I turned my head away from the heat.

But the fire was everywhere. When I closed my eyes I still saw a red glow, like when you scrunch your eyes shut and look at the sun. Behind us a flaming branch crashed to the ground, sending up another shower of sparks. Smoke was filling up the air, making it hard to breathe.

"We have to get out of here." I coughed. Any other time Livvie would have given me a _No shit, Sherlock_ look. But she just nodded and looked around for a clear path out.

"There!" she cried, pointing to a spot where the flames were weakest. "Run for it!" Squinting to see through the hazy smoke, I sprinted in that direction and and heard Livvie right behind me. We were still in the forest, and the wildfire was spreading like, well, _wildfire_. But I knew there was a lake about half a mile to the north. If we waded in the water we wouldn't be burned, but even more importantly, we'd have a clear shot at the sky.

Then it was a race against time. I was expecting a second wave of Erasers to show up any second now, when they realized the first wave was dead. We had about an estimated two minutes to get to the lake in time before either the fire or the Erasers killed us. But three minutes later, we'd managed to outrun the fire and no Erasers had shown up. Where are they?

Normally, we had tons of stamina but the smoke was occupying the space normally filled with oxygen and fogging our brains, making us slower. I'd broken my left arm in the explosion, and Livvie had at least one broken rib; she grimaced with pain everytime she took a breath. She could hardly breathe at all. The fire was catching up with us.

Crashing blindly through the underbrush, we struggled to fill our lungs with air. I was feeling lightheaded and dizzy, and I could tell Livvie was too. It felt like an eternity before we saw the pitch-black waters of the lake through the trees. But then I saw - what? Did the shadows just move? _No, that's impossible_ I told myself. _I'm hallucinating. Lack of oxygen, right?_

I felt like I was about to suffocate if I didn't fill my lungs with pure, clean, non-smoky air _right then_, so with one last surge of strength, I grabbed Livvie's wrist (She looked like she was about to pass out.) and sprinted through the treeline. When we were out in the open, I closed my eyes and breathed so deep I thought I would burst.

"Enjoy it while you can, bird-brain." a deep voice growled. "There isn't much fresh air _six feet under._"

Gasping, my eyes snapped open and I heard Livvie scream. _It was an ambush._ I'd lead us straight into a trap. Erasers were swarming around us, circling us, trying to drive us back into the woods. Back into the fire. Eyes wide with horror, I looked at Livvie and saw she'd come to the same grim realization. She stared straight ahead, frozen. The Erasers came closer, half-morphed, with leering, wolfish grins. This was a new batch - they looked so young, our age, even. Some of them started to laugh - horrible, low chuckles. They couldn't wait to kill us.

Without meaning to, I took a step backwards. Big mistake. Erasers are like dogs; they can sense your fear. And they play on it. Taunting, they fake-lunged at us. And of course we flinched away. We knew what those claws felt like slicing through your skin, like a hot knife through butter. Terrified, I glanced at Livvie again. "Up and away," she whispered through clenched teeth.

Heart pounding, I nodded. "On five." I replied. "One..."

"Two..." An almost imperceptible tightening of muscles.

"Three..." Closed eyes. Breathe in... Breathe out...

"Four..." Eyes snap open, stare straight forward with a new energy.

"Five!" We rushed the Erasers, caught them off guard. Ran five steps, spread our wings and pushed off the ground hard.

One hard downstroke and we were soaring above the Erasers. Yes! We were flying! I had the crazy urge to laugh. Exhilirated, I looked over to Livvie and saw she was as happy as me. Everything was right for once.

Until it wasn't anymore.

An Eraser's clumsy, clawed hand closed around my ankle, threatening to pull me out of the sky. "NO!" I screamed, trying to kick it off. But it was no use, he was pulling me down. I beat my wings fast and hard, reaching for Livvie's hand. She was flitting back and forth; she couldn't get close enough to help me without being pulled down herself. I looked down again. The other Erasers were ready for me, they had a black body bag and creepy-looking syringes out. I screamed and thrashed around, trying to get away, but I couldn't.

Suddenly, a tall Eraser-girl slammed into the one who was pulling me down, seeming to come out of nowhere. She was fast - one second she wasn't there, then a blur of light-tan skin and brown-with-blond-streaks hair, and then she was standing there, snarling, while the one who'd had me by the ankle was on the ground. I soared upwards, not expecting the sudden freedom.

On the ground, the Erasers were staring open-mouthed at the girl. A low, feral growl slipped out of the one she'd tackled. She snarled back at him. For one electrified moment, they stood there, glaring at each other. Vying for pack dominance. Finally, the male broke eye contact. She'd won.

Me and Livvie hovered in the air far above, with know idea what the hell was going on. Was I just saved from Erasers by an Eraser? Suddenly, the girl threw her head back and looked straight at us. "Shit!"Livvie said. We screamed up through the air as fast as we could, then swerved west.

Then, because the night just wasn't bad enough already, the girl spread her _wings_ and joined us in the sky.


	2. Zelda's Story

**Well, here's the next chappie! And happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans. Anyone going shopping on Black Friday? I am, but only so I can watch people fist-fight over Tickle Me Elmos. Is it just me, or is Elmo really scary?**Snow POV.

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In my experiences, you only have three choices when you're facing down your nightmares: Fight, fly, or die. And we _so_ weren't up for a fight, plus I didn't really feel like dying, thank you very much, so when the girl spread _her_ wings, we put ours to good use. We flew like our lives depended on it. As far as we knew, they did. And the girl followed us without difficulty, no matter what we did. Even when we went full-tilt, screaming across the starry sky like rockets. That is, if rockets were grimy teenage girls with wings.

When you're flying away, you get another two options; speed or stealth. And speed was out. Normally, stealth wouldn't be such a problem at night, but when you got out in the open you could see the moon was pretty close to full and shining like a spotlight. Not to mention the gazillion stars. It would've been pretty. You know, if we had _time_ for pretty.

We plunged into the inky-black forest on the other side of the lake, heading towards the mountains. They were Appalachians, not as big as the Rockies, but older and less pointy.

We slowed down minutely in the forest so we could dodge around the closely-packed trees. I was getting pretty scratched up by the branches all around, but I really didn't care. As long as it got the Eraser off our tail. I glanced around to see Livvie was holding her own, with this crazy-determined expression on her face. She knew what would happen if the Eraser caught up with us.

Golden Rule: When flying through a dense forest in the middle of the night at to speed, it's wise _not _to let your attention wander.

Like a spaz, I smacked into a branch and got the breath knocked out of me. I manage to stay in the air, but just barely, and I twisted around to see the girl was still following us. Worse, she was _gaining _on us.

So that meant stealth was out, too. And what did that leave of our options? Oh, yeah... _Die._

Ain't life a bitch?

All witticisms aside, we were _seriously_ in trouble. Because we couldn't go any faster without impaling ourselves on trees. "Livvie!" I yelled. She looked back at me. "Get ready to fight!"

She nodded and landed gracefully, probably just to make me feel stupid for running into a tree (It _was_ pretty dumb). I braced myself and turned around, expecting to see death hurtling towards me with it's bloodshot eyes exuding pure hate and, like, eternal torment or something. But instead I got...

Nothing.

There was nothing in the forest behind us. I blinked hard and looked again. The only thing moving was the wind through the leaves, which rustled darkly, though not enough for something solid to be moving around in them. I whipped my head around and turned an uneasy 360. The only thing I saw was Livvie, standing stock-still and watching for... _something_, the way I was. "Snow...?" she said.

The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. You wouldn't need a sharp one, either. Just a little butterknife. I did another 360.

"My name is Zelda."

"What did you say?" I spun around to look at Livvie.

She looked confused. "I didn't say anything." Then Livvie frowned. "But I heard it too."

"I am fourteen years old. I'm an Eraser."

Eyes wide, I looked around yet again. "Where are you?" I said loudly.

"Show yourself!" Olivia added.

"All in good time, my friends."

That made me mad. "If you're an Eraser you're no friend of mine!" I spat. I didn't have to look at Livvie to know she was thinking the same thing.

"Why can't you people just leave us the hell alone?" she cried. I grabbed her shoulder and motioned for an up-and-away.

"Wait!" Zelda said, sounding close to desperate. "Just hear me out, okay?"

"Why should we?" Livvie asked, sounding way tough. Once again, I was amazed at her ability to remain cool in these kind of situations. I swear, we would be dead by now if it weren't for her.

"Because I'm not here to kill you!" Zelda said. "I don't work for _them_."

"Prove it." I growled. About twenty feet away, a girl shimmered into existence with her arms at her sides, palms facing toward us - the universal gesture for "Look, I'm not carrying a big murderous weapon".

To be honest, she looked at lot like Livvie - not enough to be sisters, but pretty close. Livvie was really tall at five feet, eleven inches; Zelda was an inch or two shorter. They both had brown hair with blond streaks, but Zelda had less, they looked like they were growing out. Livvie's eyes were browny-hazely-ish and Zelda's were gray-blue. I was the black sheep here, being kinda short for my age with vampire-pale skin, jet black hair and stormy gray eyes.

"Okay," I said, crossing my arms. "Convince us."

"I was kidnapped as a little kid, like you." Zelda said without wasting any time. "But they turned me into the first _avian_-lupine-human hybrid."

"I used to think that _we _were the good guys and the runaways were threatening the world by not following the plan - that's how I was raised to think. But I had a friend named Danny who knew what was going on was wrong." She continued. "And he tried to convince the others of that too. I told him to shut up - _they_ didn't like to be challenged. But he didn't listen to me. If anything, he got louder about it."

Zelda took a deep breath. "And they killed him." She said, fighting back tears. "They killed my best friend - my _only _friend - because he got too close to the truth. They tried to make it seem like a tragic accident. 'Oh, he was over by the lab when the experiment went rogue and killed him.' But I wasn't buying it. There was another Eraser who said he saw the whole thing. Saw them kill Danny."

"But one day _he_ went missing too. And when I tried to ask the others about it, they had no idea who I was talking about. They thought I was crazy, especially when I started to say what Danny had been saying. That's when I realized they were going to kill me too."

I glanced over at Livvie. She was staring intently at Zelda.

"I stuck around just long enough to hear about this mission; the one to come get you two back again." Zelda said. "Then I ran away. Now I'm on their hit list - so are you."

"They have a hit list?" I asked. "Just how many of us have escaped?"

"More than you'd think." Zelda replied. "Their system isn't as air-tight as it appears."

"We know there are at least six others out." Livvie said. "They rescued us."

Zelda nodded. "More than that. There are at _least_ twelve, maybe thirteen bird-kids out right now. You met the top six most wanted."

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. "And they knew we were here - how?"

"That I don't know." Zelda said. "I wasn't supposed to be on this mission. I ran away and saw the ambush group on their way here, so I went invisible and followed them. That's when I realized they were after you and I tried to stop them."

"Just one question," Livvie said. "Why?"

Zelda looked at us. "Because I want to join you. We can take them down."

I thought. Finally, I said "Okay. But only because of two reasons: If you were going to kill us, you would've done it already. And number two, you have information we need. If we're going to take down the Institute, we need allies. You know where to find them. We're going to form a flock, so to speak."


	3. Just My Luck

**Well hi there Sunshine! At least, I hope you're still sunny after the long wait. But I have an excuse! I used to think I just had chronic, big-time writer's block, but it turns out, I have ADD! Which - now that I think about it - explains a lot... And it's SO not what it's cracked up to be. More like being chronically bored.**

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**You know, some people are so freaking lucky it's not even funny. They have a family, friends, a house, food, and they don't have to worry if they'll even survive the night. They can spend money on things they want, they get to take hot showers, ride their bikes around town without worrying about creepers, and probably smell like hair care products. They'd even win a couple bucks at a casino if they went to one. Yeah, some people have all the luck...

I am _so_ not one of them. Heck, maybe I was born under an unlucky star. Just a shot in the dark there, since up until a month ago I lived in a dog crate in a secret experimental facility beneath the streets of Manhattan as some kind of sick living lab equipment.

About a month ago, maybe less, salvation came in the form of six scruffy bird-kids at one A.M. - the six most wanted, according to Zelda. They helped us and the other experiments escape through the sewers, the subway tunnels, and up into the streets. I'd only been out once before - ran for the door when no one was looking and got my sorry ass hauled back by Erasers within the hour, and I don't know about Livvie. It was pretty much impossible to plan escapes because everything we did was captured on video. I used to think, if the government got hold of just one of those cameras...

Anyway, back to the other bird-kids. They offered to take us in, but I was too paranoid. I didn't know who we could trust. So I refused, me and Livvie rounded up the rest of our ragtag crew, and we headed North. Some of them branched off in their own groups. Don't ask me where they are now, we didn't keep in touch. Could be anywhere by now.

A few of them even went back to the Institute. It was the only life they'd ever known, and don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think they had the capacity to imagine that there was something else out there. Sometimes I even wonder if they were the right ones - I mean, life outside wasn't exactly a walk in the park. The first week was especially hard.

My group kept on going north until we found an empty vacation home in the Catskill Mountains. But on the way, most of them died for one reason or another. Some of them needed drugs to the Institute to survive, others were just doomed from the beginning. Our first night there we spent digging graves. Cheery housewarming party, right?

But the part that really cuts me up was how most of them died without a name. Like they never knew who they really were.

I picked the name Snow for myself ages ago. And Livvie, I guess she did the same. I don't even remember why I chose Snow - It's just who I am now.

In the meantime, we had other things to worry about. The house had electricity, running water, internet, all that good stuff. I really have no idea how nobody noticed that we were using their stuff. I mean, didn't they get bills or something? That's what makes me think it was a little less than a month, then they didn't get the bills yet. Or maybe they just never paid them to begin with, I don't know. We lifted a couple of wallets and bought ourselves a ton of food, clothes, and whatnot.

By the end of the first week, everyone had died off except for us two. So we lived like that for a while, just counting on something to happen. That's why we had everything ready when it finally did. And yeah, I feel kind of bad about blowing up their house. Remind me to write them a check later, I think I left my designer purse in the Lamborghini. Note the sarcasm.

One thing we didn't count on was having an ally. And for once it seemed like my luck had finally changed.

"There's another lab in Death Valley," Zelda announced. "Called the School."

"Wait, where's Death Valley?" I asked.

"It's in Californa."

"...Where's that?" Livvie asked. What can I say, we've been out for like a month.

Zelda spread out a map on the smooth dirt ground and crouched down. We copied her motions. "Over here," Zelda said, pointing to one side of the map. "And we're over here." she pointed to the other side.

"So what's the catch?" I said. "It seems way too easy."

"It's way farther than it looks." Zelda replied.

"How far?" Livvie prompted.

Zelda hesitated. "At least four, maybe five days of flying. No breaks."

Livvie and I exchanged a glance. I nodded. "So we go to the School. What do we get out of it?"

"There's two or three avians there," She said. "And three or four between."

I narrowed my eyes. The whole deal was sounding pretty sketchy. "How are we supposed to find them?"

"With this!" Zelda pulled a cell phone out of her backpack with a flourish.

"A cell phone?" Livvie asked rhetorically. "We're just going to call them up and demand to know where they are?"

"No, of course not!" She scoffed. "We're going to ask them _nicely._" Livvie stared. Zelda cracked up. "Kidding! It's a tracking device. All the avians have tracer chips implanted in their forearms."

Unconciously, my hand flew to the smooth, pale skin of my forearm as if to guard it from some maniac in a speedo running up and shoving a chip in it. Well, he doesn't have to be in a speedo. But most maniacs are... "Can other Erasers access this?" I asked sharply.

"No."

"I doubt that's true." Livvie said, not trying to be mean. Just being honest.

"Look." Zelda barked (No pun intended). "There are different units of Erasers. The Avians Unit is the top of the food chain, the creme de la creme. Because you crazy birds are notoriously smart, fast, and lucky."

"Aw, shucks." I muttered sarcastically. "Get on with it."

"Each member has their own job - There's the Alpha, who's in charge; the Beta, who takes over if the Alpha gets hurt; some random fighters; the guy who holds the tranquilizers, or the duct tape, or the... body bags; the chopper pilot; and the Tracker. That would be me." Zelda explained. "Only the Alpha and the Beta know the whole plan, everyone else knows only the part they play in it. It's safer that way. The pilot doesn't even know the place until about an hour before the mission. I was the only one with access to this thing." She waved the tracker around.

I glared at her tensely for a moment. "Okay," I finally admitted. "So where exactly are they?"

"Not too far." Zelda announced, her expression challenging.

Livvie straightened up and crossed her arms. I copied her. Let's go with some scare tactics, eh? "Where are they?" I repeated, deceptively calm.

Zelda slipped the tracker into her backpack and stood up in one fluid motion. "You'll find out. Eventually." She said evenly, meeting each our eyes in turn. "Stick around and you'll find out."

"That's BS!" I exploded. "_We're _the ones who took _you _in!"

"Yeah..." Zelda mock-sympathized. "Bummer _I'm _the one with the information _you _need."

So there we were. Allies? Not so much now. This was more of a business offer, albeit a dangerous, shady-on-the-details one. If we accepted, we'd have to take it in faith that she was actually leading us to the avians, not somewhere more... evil. And so far, Zelda wasn't proving herself to be very trustworthy. I mean, she was an ex-_Eraser_, our mortal enemy. Plus, with all the random mood swings, leaving out details, and obviously trying to get on our good side, I wasn't exactly convinced she was Abraham Lincoln (Honest Abe, no?).

But if we refused, said "Screw THIS!" and walked away, we would never find other people like us, never have our revenge on the people who made us this way, and - most importantly - never guarantee ourselves a cage-free future.

Honestly? It was a no-brainer.

I sighed, shook my head at the stupidity of my next move, and dropped my defensive stance. "I'm in."

Livvie glanced between me and Zelda tensely before she caved. "Me too." She said reluctantly. "I think we have to do this."

Zelda nodded quickly. "Pennsylvania." She announced. "Energy's in Pennsylvania. With Rhaksha."

I shook my head in disbelief at what we were getting into again. "Let's go," I growled as I snapped out my black wings. "Before I change my mind."

Livvie shook out her Golden Eagle-esque wings, and Zelda her white, blood-splattered ones, and the three of us leaped off the cliff, into the air, and soared South.

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**I have a request for everyone who has a character in the story! Please PM me about your character's parents. Do you have a story in mind? Or can I improvise? This is very important, it'll resurface later in the story!**

**And, um, read my blog. ..**

**R&R?**


	4. Energy

**Hey, Hey YOU!  
**

**So I know I'm, like, the worst updater in the history of everything, but I can assure that eventually, you'll get a chapter. It might take months and I won't guarantee it's not crap, but I'm going to post something eventually. It's getting harder and harder for me to write, the ADD is getting worse and I just don't have enough time, but I'll keep cranking out the chappies ;) Don't give up on me yet!**

**WE HAVE REACHED THE INESCAPABLE CHAPTER FOUR!**

**I have bad luck with fours... None of my fanfics have ever made it past four chapters. The last one that did was adopted by KaylaAnonymous. Hopefully, Winging It breaks the curse. **

**A side note: This story takes place roughly around School's Out - Forever. Therefore, flying Erasers are kind of a new thing and the year is 2005.**

**In the meantime... Here's this.**

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**Snow POV**

Judging from what I've seen on TV, there are lots of ways normal teenagers like to spend their Saturday nights. Usually this _doesn't _include A) Homework, B) Chores, or C) Trudging blindly through the underbrush in some dark, godforsaken patch of mosquito-infested Pennsylvanian forest.

Guess which one _I _was doing?

If you guessed C, then _ding ding ding_! We have a winner. And I'm _not _happy about it.

I made an exasperated noise as I tapped on the screen of the tracker. On one side, two pulsating green dots symbolized Livvie and I. On the other, another dot symbolized the girl named Energy. A little ways away from her was the dot for Rhaksha Vi. If you poked one of the dots, all this genetic information popped up on screen. It gave me the creeps just thinking about it.

So it was totally a piece of cake, finding this 'Energy' person. NOT.

"Why won't it work!" I half-yelled. Zelda and Livvie shushed me.

"I told you," Zelda explained, though she looked pretty annoyed at it too. "It's an older model; it doesn't give exact coordinates. We just have to wander around until we find them. We know they're around here somewhere."

"Ugh." I sighed.

"Cheer up," Livvie said. "It's not so bad."

I had to agree. Under normal circumstances, we probably wouldn't even be in the right state, let alone the right patch of woods. "Let's go this way," Zelda suggested, taking the tracker from me and pointing in a random direction. We set off that way, trying to be stealthy but failing miserably because of the underbrush.

Thirty minutes of searching with nothing to show for it later, we were pretty much back where we started: Nowhere.

We'd waited for night to fall in case Rhaksha or Energy were blended with something nocturnal. Even if they weren't, they probably hid during the day anyway. That's what Livvie and I did. The darkness was a great cover.

Of course, _now _I was mentally kicking myself for that. It would obviously be harder to find them now.

_Great, _I thought bitterly. _If I make mistakes like this now, what'll I do when I have a whole flock? And, that's IF I ever get a whole flock. Why should they trust me?_

"Well, this sucks." Zelda commented, interrupting my silent pity-party.

"No dip," I snapped. Livvie shot a look at me. Don't piss off the informant, Snow. "I mean, um, yeah." I recovered.

Livvie, who had the tracker now, consulted it again. I leaned against a tree and sighed. I was being difficult again.

Suddenly, I heard Livvie suck in her breath. "Guys -" she started in, but got cut off by an all-too-familiar sound: The metallic click of a loaded gun.

I whipped my head around, looking for the source of the sound, or more importantly, the person holding it. "Don't move," an unfamiliar girl's voice growled. From behind the trees stepped the speaker, a petite Asian-looking girl, around thirteen-ish with blue hair (What?) and gold eyes (What?). She was holding a small but lethal-looking pistol. Energy.

"I want to know who you are and why you're looking for me." She stated quietly. "_Now._"

"How long have you been following us?" gasped Zelda.

Energy said nothing, only gave Zelda a look. The sentiment was all too clear: _I asked first_. I glanced around at the others to see them staring back at me with looks of pure _What do we do now?_

Good question.

I looked down at my dirty sneakers, then back up and sighed. Blunt was always a nice approach. "I'm Snow." I began. "This is Livvie, and Zelda. We're here because we want to build a team of mutants and take down Itex."

Something flashed in Energy's eyes at the last few words I said, but it was gone before I knew what it was. She lowered the gun a little, cautiously. "I'm listening."

"Me and Livvie were rescued from a lab in New York City - The Institute for Higher Living? - about a month ago. Two days ago, we were attacked by Erasers and the place where we were staying was blown up. Zelda found us with this tracker-thing -" I tapped on the tracker. "- And a plan."

She looked at us, searchingly and said "What are you?" The gun was down by her side now, but she still looked ready to spring.

"I used to be an avian-Eraser," Zelda piped up, surprising me. "I mean, I still am, but I don't work for them anymore. Things were bad. They were going to kill me. But I ran away." She bit her lip, looking off to the side.

It also surprised me that she didn't mention her friend, Danny, the one that got killed, but I guess everyone deals with grief differently and whatever. I mentally shrugged.

"We're avian," Livvie spoke, pointing at herself and me. "Two percent. I've been at the Institute for as long as I can remember."

"Me too." I added. "But I got out. Once."

December, 2001, to be exact. Four years ago. I was ten, I had just been taken out of my cage for some test. I was surrounded by Erasers so I didn't escape, it was a routine thing, when suddenly all these alarms started going off and all the scientists and Erasers ran for one of the doors, presumably toward the source of the crisis. Completely forgetting about me. I didn't know what set off all the alarms and I still don't. All I know is that for the first time in my life, I was completely unguarded and the way out was screaming at me.

I ran for it.

I don't remember going up topside, but I guess it would be the same way we took when we were rescued. Through the sewers, then subway tunnels, then up to the streets. It was really, really late at night and it was snowing. Like, big holiday-movie flakes.

When I said I didn't remember how I'd gotten my name before? I lied. It was to remind me about being free when I got dragged back to the Institute.

"Hello?" Livvie was saying. "Earth to Snow. Come in Snow."

"Uh, yeah, sorry." I said, blinking back to the present. "What's up?"

"I got out from a lab about six months ago," Energy said with quiet intensity. I noticed that was generally the way she was so far. "My younger brother was killed during the escape." Her voice got harder when she said that last part, like she was battling to keep the emotions out of her voice.

_Jeez, that's bad. _I thought, then, _What is it with Itex and murder? _

Zelda shuffled her feet and glanced off to the left, biting her nails. I looked at her, wondering why she was acting strange. I finally decided she was nervous about, I don't know, acceptance? Trust? Maybe she thought Energy would have something against her, her being an Eraser and all. Whatever. I had bigger fish to fry.

"That's terrible. That's really, really terrible." Livvie deadpanned, saying what we were all thinking. Energy nodded emotionlessly, looking at the ground.

"Look," Zelda said impatiently. "Are you in or what?"

Energy looked up, meeting Zelda dead in the eyes. "I'm in."

_One down, who knows how many more to go._

* * *

**There. Finally done.**

**RnR? ConCrit appreciated.  
**


	5. Can't Go Back

**Let me just begin this author's note by saying I am a total douche at updating, and this is the second time I've updated on a Fall holiday. And unfortunately, I am such a douche that yes, I would make you wait several months for a... a... *Sob* a filler.**

**Funny story- I was IMing two people at once when I was writing this; one was KaylaAnonymous, my real-life best friend/epic beta who submitted Zelda, the other was this guy I go to school with. I was typing paragraphs to Kayla one at a time, and I accidentally sent one to the guy. The guy who had never heard of fanfiction, or Maximum Ride. It was terrible. I'll put a * next to the paragraph it was, so you understand just how terrible it was.**

* * *

_Three Years Previously..._

_She is running as fast as she can, branches tearing at her ankles with every step. Her breath comes raggedly, sharps huffs creating steam in the early-morning air as her bare feet pound the ground. How long has she been running? It's seemed like forever. She can't keep this up much longer. She shoots a terrified glance behind herself, not knowing what she will see. Her heart pounds with fear, knowing that if she returns to that place, she will die. Her life will end before it had a chance to really begin. But nine years of experiments, pain, and torture has made her desperate - She must escape. _

_She hears gunshots. Howling. A bullet hits a tree next to her, sending splinters of wood ricocheting off. In the distance, her superhuman hearing detects low-pitched growls. No! She can not go back! She trips on a branch, falls. Her hands fly out to break her fall, a rock cuts deep into one of them. It doesn't matter. Crying with fear and exhaustion, the girl scrambles back up and surges forward, a burst of terror-fueled energy powers her to take one more step, then another. Another. She's running again, with no idea where she is or where she should be. _

_A pain in her side. Her throat feels raw. Her legs throb and her hand is bleeding openly. She doesn't care. The growls are getting louder. She tries to run faster, but she can't. She's reached her limit. She's slowing down. No! _

_She falls to her knees first, then the rest of her follows. She lies there, panting, trying to ignore the sound of her blood rushing. She is tired. So tired... Her eyes start to close. _

_Footsteps. Voices. Getting closer. What are they saying? Does it matter? _

_A hand roughly grabs her shoulder, jerking her upwards. The touch releases a floodgate of memories, broken images and sequences that make no sense together. A flourescent-lit hallway, hazy and distorted through her drugged eyes. A man's voice, rattling off stats. People in white coats, children in cages. Her eyes snap open. SHE CAN NOT GO BACK!_

_Fangs spring out of her gums, venom dripping from them as she turns to face the half-morphed Eraser. She sinks her fangs into his wrist, he screams in pain "What the hell?". She bites down hard, scrunching her eyes shut. The Eraser screams again, bloodcurtlingly, as the poison enter his bloodstream. She lets go, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as her fangs retract.*****_

_A click. A gun. The other Eraser. She looks up, only to find herself looking down the barrel of a rifle. The Eraser growls at her, but the effect is ruined by the nervous glances he keeps shooting his twitching, screaming friend. He's afraid, but not backing down. _

_She turns on her heel and runs, fueled again by the will to live. She doesn't want to die. She can't go back. A shot rings past her ear, hitting the dirt in front of her. She darts to the left, zig-zagging through the trees. Her feet falling hard on the ground again, the exhaustion beginning to return. She shakes it off. No! _

_What is that? Up ahead. The sky. A clearing. A clearing! She runs faster, bursting through the treeline just as another bullet whizzes past her. She leaps, unfurling her bright-colored wings as she's in the air. She flaps down hard, then up again. Clumsily, she rises above the trees to see the sun peeking over the horizon. She's flying._

_She's free._

* * *

Snow POV

"Run". Verb. Three letters, one syllable. It's a pretty small word, wouldn't you say? It's a pretty common word, don't you think? You probably don't look too much into the word "run". You probably use it everyday, without really thinking about it. But the impact this word, this tiny little word has on my life, and the lives of everyone around me... Well, let's just say it's _significant. _

Because that's what we do. We run - Debatably, the day we started running was the day our lives truly began. We run away. We run for our lives. We run until we can't run anymore, and then we fly. We run because of fear, because of the will to survive.

"Run" is also the difference between us (Livvie and me), and Zelda, Energy, and Rhaksha. All of us ran - It's just that some of us waited for the "Ready, set, GO!", and the rest made their own starting line.

Either way, it didn't matter. One month, three years, a few weeks, or however long Energy had been out, - She didn't say, I didn't ask - we were all in the same boat now. Rhaksha was the youngest of us, but she had the most experience. Not to mention - get this - retractable venomous _fangs. _Zelda had been out the least amount of time, but she knew how the enemy worked. And Energy? Well, she was an amazing fighter, plus there was the fact that she had a nine millimeter. Major asset, I tell you. Livvie - I don't think I've mentioned this before, but she had this power she called "phasing". She could... Er, walk through walls. It was impossible and scary and I have no idea how she did it, but she did.

As for me, well, I didn't have any powers. I wasn't really anything special at all, in fact. But for some strange reason, the others started naturally deferring to me as the leader. I don't know, maybe I was their pity case for not having a cool power or fancy gun obtained under shady circumstances (Again, she didn't say, I didn't ask). However it happened, the point was that it did.

We were headed west - to California, flying high over small-town Ohio, right on schedule. Meeting Rhaksha had gone surprisingly well - no one threatened to kill us, at least. Admittedly, this was because Rhaksha and Energy had met and formed something of an alliance, if not a friendship.

I watched them all from the back of the group as we flew. Rhaksha was tanned, like the others, but had waist-length black hair with silver streaks and bangs, green eyes and an average height.

"Hey!" I looked over to see Energy motioning to a small cube-like building on the ground. I squinted, then realized it was a gas station. _Food?_ she mouthed. I glanced at Livvie, Zelda, and Rhaksha, saw them nod in agreement.

"Land behind the building!" I yelled over the wind, and we all began to descend smoothly. I felt my feet touch solid ground and folded my wings against my back, pulling an oversized sweatshirt out of my backpack as the others did the same. I turned to them. "Ready?" It would, technically, be one of our first interaction with humans. Everyone nodded back gamely.

We walked around the front of the building, where a lone guy was pumping gas into a pick-up truck. He eyed us suspiciously beforing turning his back. Rhaksha pushed open the door to the building and a bell tinkled quietly overhead. I followed after her, Livvie, Zelda, and Energy behind me. An acne-ridden teenager - Dirk, according to his nametag - glanced at us boredly, then turned up the music on his iPod. _Jeez, _I thought. _Friendly place._

We headed straight for the food aisle, though there wasn't much there. Everyone started grabbing bags of chips, cookies, and waters. "Hey," Rhaksha sidled up to me and whispered. "Do we have enough money for all this?"

"Uh..."

She nodded. "We'll have to run for it." I nodded back, then whispered directions to Livvie, who passed it down the line. I turned around, looking for granola bars, when something caught my eye - a stand of newspapers. Blaring the headline _FLYING KIDS SPOTTED OUTSIDE ORLANDO, FLORIDA. _

_Wha-at?_

I grabbed a paper, scanning the page. A blurry photograph of six large, awkwardly-shaped birds flying through an overcast sky occupied most of the space. Except that they weren't birds. They were kids. A subtitle ran under the headline, asking _THE SAME AS SEEN IN NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANT IN JUNE? _

_June, _I realized. _That was when we escaped. _A million thoughts burst into my head at once about the mysterious kids who'd rescued us - They were still out there. In Florida.

Just then, Zelda tapped me on the shoulder. "Ready?" She whispered.

"I was born ready," I replied. I glanced back at Dirk, who appeared to be listening to music still, not paying attention. "Be casual."

Zelda opened the door, put one foot on the sidewalk, and then Dirk finally caught on. "Hey!" He yelled nasally, standing up. "You have to pay for that!"

"Run!" Someone yelled - Energy, I think - and Zelda bolted, with Livvie and Rhaksha right behind here. Energy and I brought up the rear just as Dirk made it around the counter, his shoes slipping on the linoleum floor. Pick-up truck guy was gone, I noticed. Zelda ran to the edge of the parking lot, us following her, Dirk following us.

"Come back!" He yelled, his voice cracking. Zelda reached the side of the deserted intersection, turned back to look at me questioningly. Do we fly here, and risk having Dirk go to the media with claims of flying out-of-towners with strangely-colored hair, or do we go on foot until we lose him? It was obvious to me - we could outrun the wimpy teenager any day, but from the look on Zelda's face I knew what she was going to do. She turned, unfurled her wings and jumped into the air.

The others followed suit, I, thinking _Screw it, the damage is already done_, did the same. Behind me, I Dirk went silent. I twisted around in the air to look back at him, and couldn't help laughing at the expression of pure 'WHAT?' on his face. His mouth was like a perfect O. Admittedly, the theatrics had been worth it just to see that face. I turned and flew after the others, who were exclaiming victoriously a few hundred feet above.

We ascended another thousand feet and swept around in a slow circle, headed West again. As we flew off into the setting sun, I realized I was, well, happy. Which was completely illogical, I mean, I knew what I was up against. But still, that was the first thing we'd really done together as a Flock. It wasn't much - Petty crime, anyone? - but it was more than nothing. And the _look _on that guy's face...

* * *

I wiped the sweat off my forehead, squinting through the unforgiving Death Valley sun. When Zelda talked about the lab out in California, she failed to mention the fact that it was freaking HOT there. I'm not even joking - the average temperature for July was one hundred fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. The hottest it had ever gotten in New York (in my lifetime) had been 102 one Summer, and I'd been underground for that.

I watched as Energy raised the Institute-issue binoculars (courtesy of Zelda) to her eyes, focusing on the nondescript block of a building about two miles away. It had been four days since the grand theft junk food spree in Ohio. Now we were outside the School. It seemed harmless enough to me, but Energy and Rhaksha were definitely on edge. If it was anything like the Institute inside, though, I understood why.

The thought struck me like a ton of bricks. Going into another Institute? I didn't know what we'd see - cages, Erasers - Oh God. What if we were captured? I can't go back there, a place like that. Can't. What the hell was I even doing? Trying to take down Itex? Heroic bullshit. Could never happen. Not from me, anyway, no matter how much help I could get. In the end, we were all still just kids, no matter how much we'd been through. Could never even _touch_ Itex, never.

Then, I saw the other angle of it. _A place like the Institute, you knew what was in there - people who need to get out. Get away from it, before it killed them. _I'd been in a place like that, not too long ago, and someone had obviously had the guts to help. _And _they'd lived to tell the story, I realized, remembering the newspaper I'd seen.

Was there really any question on if I could do it? Absolutely. Was I going to do it anyway?

You bet.

* * *

**RnR?**

**Apologies once again!**


	6. The School: Part One

**Hey everyone!**

**This chapter went by pretty smoothly, and it didn't take as long as some of the others (I think...). **

**And... um... I really don't have anything much to say here. Enjoy.**

***This chapter has some language. Well, they all do, but this one is minusculy (I know I slaughtered that word. I just know it.) worse. Just thought I'd warn ya.**

* * *

Snow POV

Contrary to popular belief, there are times when it's okay to slap someone vital upside the head and tell them exactly where they can stick their attitudes.

I really, really wished this was one of them.

Let's recap - since escaping the sadistic lab where we'd spent our entire lives, Livvie and I had been forced to blow up the empty vacation home we'd commandeered before being approached by Zelda, an Eraser who had turned traitor on Itex, the evil company that monopolized pretty much everything and was funding research into genetic experiments on humans for ours and other sadistic labs around the world - which was _illegal_, I might add, and nobody important seemed to give a damn. We didn't know why they were doing it. Other than research, no scientists had ever mentioned _why _us mutants were created, and somehow I didn't think it was for chuckles.

But anyway, Zelda had turned on them because they'd killed her friend when he got too close to something bigger than the freaky mutant soap-opera playing out here - or so she claimed, and really I had no reason to trust her. Especially since she refused to share the information about where the other avians she claimed to exist were. And when it turned out they weren't just a ruse for us to follow her into a trap, one of them also claimed to have had someone killed by Itex. And now, we were planning to break into one of those sadistic labs to break out some more mutants who _might_ help us on our ridiculously ambitious quest to take down a ridiculously powerful supercompany with nearly-endless funds, and only because Zelda had said they were in there.

Basically, we were being lead into a bunch of dangerous situations by an untrustworthy wolf girl, and I was getting pretty damn sick of it. So when Zelda suddenly decided breaking into the School wasn't such a hot idea and tried to get us to back out of the plan, I made the leaderly decision to ignore her completely.

"Seriously, guys," Zelda said. "We shouldn't do this." I flipped my hair out of my eyes and continued packing supplies into a backpack, so we could just grab it and go, if a speedy getaway was needed. I had a sneaking suspicion it would be. Energy and Rhaksha exchanged glances. "Really. This is a bad idea."

"It was _your _idea," Livvie pointed out. I zipped the backpack shut and turned around.

"Yeah, well, I changed my mind," Zelda replied. "We are _not _going in there."

"It's not your decision," I snapped.

She bristled. "It's not _yours_ either!"

I grit my teeth. She was right. I may have been the leader, but I didn't own these people. And however you looked at it, breaking into the School wasn't gonna be a walk in the park. "Fine," I said. "We'll take a vote. And I vote we do this."

"So do I," Rhaksha piped up immediately. "If there are people in there, they need a way out."

"I'm with Rhaksha," Livvie said firmly.

Energy shrugged. "We've come this far. Might as well see it through." Her hand twitched toward the nine millimeter on her hip.

"You're outnumbered," Rhaksha looked at Zelda. "Four to one."

Zelda met her eyes. "This is a _bad_ idea." she insisted.

"Why?" Livvie asked. She laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them, looking at Zelda. "_Do_ tell. You have my _complete _attention."

"There's - there's Erasers in there." She stammered.

"So what?" I said. "There's Erasers out here. There's Erasers everywhere."

Almost simultaneously, Rhaksha chimed in. "Like you really didn't take that into stock when you decided to take us here in the first place," she said challengingly. "You're hiding something. Why did we come all the way out here just to let a few dogs stop us?" Zelda bit her lip.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out something isn't kosher with this whole situation." Energy said matter-of-factly. _Amen, _I thought.

With that, the group fell silent. I shook my head, trying to clear it. "Look," I said eventually. "We're going over there as soon as the sun sets. You can either come with us, or not."

* * *

We had gone maybe half a mile before I realized she really wasn't leaving that cliff.

I slowed down, looking back indecisively. The others, now a few feet ahead, hovered and looked back. I bit my lip, thinking maybe this wasn't such a great idea. I'd figured we could have peer-pressured her into coming with us, but the fact that she still wasn't budging had me worried. Maybe she had a good reason to stay away. Maybe _we_ should stay away.

Up ahead, Livvie motioned for me to keep going. They didn't seem concerned - at least, not about Zelda (like I said, this wasn't gonna be fun, easy, any of that jazz) - and maybe they were right. I still didn't trust her, maybe she was just playing mind-games with us. And if all went as planned in the School, all we would be losing was the alliance with Zelda, but by then it wouldn't matter. By then, we would hopefully have two, maybe three more additions to the "flock". One of us would be bound to know a starting point of the master plan.

Key word: _maybe._

With a final glance over my shoulder, I turned and kept flying toward Hell in the growing dusk.

We landed in back of the building, in a cracked and dry parking lot filled with Hummers. Off to the right was a landing pad for a helicopter, to the right was an empty lot with a cage nailed to the ground in the middle of it. More cages were stacked against the building - empty, though I wasn't sure whether to be thankful or scared because of that. Beyond the cage nailed to the ground, I could just barely make out a few more block-like buildings. Probably where Erasers slept. Uniform gray double-doors opened into the parking lot, but they were locked tight by a high-tech system with a security code. Next to the doors, about four feet up from the ground, an air vent quietly hummed. The entire scene was surrounded by a twenty foot chain link fence with barbed wire spiraling around the top.

I walked toward the vent, listening to the quiet. Everything was silent except for the vent and desert night noises. It was full dark by now, the parking lot was lit by lights much like once seen in a Walmart parking lot. It was surreal. Livvie followed behind me, but Rhaksha and Energy hung back. "This is like... deja vu," Rhaksha said softly. "This is where I escaped." She pointed to a window on the third floor. "I jumped from there. I didn't really know how to fly, and the ground came up faster than I expected it to. It was pure dumb luck I wasn't too hurt to run like hell."

Suddenly, a strange reptilian sound emanated from the vent. I shivered. I don't know what it was, but it wasn't human. And it meant the vent lead straight to it.

"We snuck out - me and my brother, that is," Energy told us. "Somehow, he figured out the code for the doors out front. When were scaling the fence, though, a bunch of alarms started going off. That's when..." She trailed off, looking lost in thought. But we knew what had happened next.

I turned to her after a moment. "Do you know if the doors had the same codes?"

She shook her head. "Not a chance. It was eight numbers, computer-generated, and changed every two weeks."

"This vent," Livvie said. I looked and saw her inspecting said vent. "It's screwed on. We don't have a screwdriver, do we?"

"No," I said, mentally facepalming. Kind of dropped the ball on that one. I looked at Energy and Rhaksha hopefully. "Do you know any way in, anything?"

"I don't think I ever left the third floor," Rhaksha said regretfully. "So unless you wanna give up the stealth approach and break a window, no."

"Sorry," Energy said, a touch bitingly. "I was too busy looking for a way _out._"

I sighed, frustrated. I couldn't believe we had come this far just to be stopped by a wall.

Wait.

A _wall._

I looked up, grinning wildly. "Just a wall!" I said in wonder. I'm sure I looked completely insane.

Rhaksha blinked at me. "Snow, have you lost your - "

Livvie sucked in her breath, understanding. "Oh my God! I can phase through it! Why didn't we think of that sooner?"

Rhaksha and Energy's faces lit up as they got it. "Yeah!"

"Why _didn't_ we think of that sooner?"

So it was decided - Livvie would use her power I'd mentioned before, phasing. Somehow, it made her form less dense, giving her the ability to pass through solid objects. The catch? It took a lot out of her. She would find a way to get us inside (hopefully through the vent), but then she would have to sit out and keep watch until we - hopefully - returned with more experiments.

She started to protest when she heard that part of the plan, but it didn't take much convincing. She knew she would only slow us down if she tried to help after phasing.

"Most of the whitecoats go home at night, but there might be some burning the midnight oil here and there," Energy informed her. "So watch out for them. And Erasers. They might be patrolling."

Livvie nodded, already fading from view. Almost immediately after her form disappeared, we heard footsteps echoing towards the doors, then silence.

* * *

Ten minutes had ticked by, agonizingly slow. Everything was quiet except for the sound of Rhaksha pacing back and forth. Energy and I leaned against the wall. She tapped her foot nervously. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach - butterflies, I guess, but it didn't feel like butterflies. It felt like dead weight. I was worried - worried sick, but come on, that's justifiable here. My mind kept running through every worst-case-scenario I could think of and I'd been getting pretty creative with them past the six-minute mark.

We hadn't spoken since the dust had settled in the wake of Livvie's footsteps. We hadn't left the twenty-foot span Rhaksha was pacing. And we hadn't heard or seen anything out of the ordinary, aside from the occasional inhuman screech piercing through the air system from somewhere deep inside the building I was leaning on. Somewhere I didn't want to think about now, or ever, actually.

But the thing was, I had to think about it, didn't I? It was where Livvie might be right now. And when she returned - _i__f she returned _- it was where I was headed. And from what I'd heard, it wasn't exactly freakin' Disneyworld in there.

Suddenly, I heard something other than the usual desert-and-hell noises - footsteps. My stomach leapt into my throat and I jumped up. Beside me, Energy did the same and put a hand to the nine millimeter. Rhaksha froze in place, her eyes darting first to the door, then out to the space behind the lot and to the right where we'd seen buildings earlier - the Erasers' barricades. They were hidden by darkness now.

_Erasers? _The thought flashed acrossed my mind like lightning. I swear, my heart stopped beating for a second. And then - Livvie was there, looking worn out but smiling triumphantly. She held something in her hand.

Relief washed through me like a dam breaking. "Scared you, didn't I?" She grinned.

"Dude," I said. "_Not_ cool." My heart was still thudding like a hummingbird on crack, but I realized I was grinning ear-to-ear too.

"Sorry," Livvie said, not looking very sorry. But whatever, I was too hyped up to care. "Here - " she held up the object in her hand. It glinted metallically in the glow from the streetlamps. "I found this for the vent." A screwdriver.

"Excellent," Energy tucked her hair behind her ear, looking positively diabolical.

Rhaksha took the screwdriver, and a minute later the cover to the vent crashed to the concrete. The opening glared at us, pitch black. It seemed to be screaming something, but what it was, I didn't know.

"Well guys," I said finally. "Ready to fuck shit up?"

They didn't answer - the evil grins said enough.

* * *

**Thanks as always to KaylaAnonymous. Writing this chapter got pretty... hilarious. (TUNYFISH SANDICH.)**

**RnR?**


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